2 Orange County women in 30s with swine flu die

GOSHEN — Two Newburgh-area women in their 30s have died after being hospitalized with swine flu, Orange County officials said Wednesday.

By CHRIS McKENNA

recordonline.com

By CHRIS McKENNA

Posted Jul. 2, 2009 at 2:00 AM
Updated Jul 21, 2009 at 1:30 PM

By CHRIS McKENNA

Posted Jul. 2, 2009 at 2:00 AM
Updated Jul 21, 2009 at 1:30 PM

» Social News

GOSHEN — Two Newburgh-area women in their 30s have died after being hospitalized with swine flu, Orange County officials said Wednesday.

One victim was 32 and died June 22 at the Cornwall campus of St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital. County officials got confirmation Monday night that the woman had swine flu, and held off reporting that until Wednesday because they were trying to contact her family, said Dr. Jean Hudson, the county health commissioner.

The other victim was 37 and died Wednesday at the same hospital, Hudson said. The county had already gotten laboratory results on Friday indicating she had Novel H1N1, the technical name for swine flu.

The two women had no known contact with each

other.

The two Newburgh-area women were the first Orange County residents to die from the illness. A 48-year-old Pike County, Pa., woman with swine flu died last month at Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis, but that death was counted by Pennsylvania, not New York.

Health officials have cautioned since the outbreak began that some 36,000 people die from seasonal flu each year and that it was likely that swine flu would claim lives. Most people who have died had complications from an underlying medical condition such as asthma or morbid obesity.

The 32-year-old local woman who died had an unspecified medical condition, but the 37-year-old woman didn't, Hudson said.

The county medical examiner will conduct autopsies on both victims and send blood and tissue samples to federal authorities to determine what contributed to the deaths.

Elsewhere in Orange County, Keller Army Community Hospital at West Point has tested at least 159 people for influenza. Of those, 35 tested positive Type A influenza. Officials say 15 definitely had H1N1, and most of the others probably had H1N1.

Hudson stressed the importance of washing hands, using hand sanitizer and staying home or keeping children home for even mild flu-like symptoms.

"It so important to keep your kids home, even if they don't seem very sick," Hudson said.

Swine flu has waned in much of the country since an outbreak began in April but remains prevalent in the Northeast.

Until recently, mid-Hudson doctors have seen a combination of seasonal and swine flu cases, even though the seasonal type usually disappears in the spring. Those cases have now dissipated, indicating that all current flu cases are the swine variety, Hudson said.